


Reading and Knittng

by dan_vs92



Series: Fiddleford-Appreciation-Month 2017 [3]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Mental Illness, PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 07:24:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10238942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dan_vs92/pseuds/dan_vs92
Summary: Dipper and Mabel try to help Fiddleford remember





	

It had been a week since the society of the blind eye, Dipper was growing antsy and in his impatience dragged his sister with him back out to meet with the local coot.

Mabel didn’t mind, really, she didn’t, it was nice to get out of the house and see how the old man was holding up after everything that went down. She even planned on making him a sweater and needed his exact measurements anyway.

It wasn’t hard to find him, he was out in the open, fiddling away with some scrap metal and humming loud enough to make Dipper cringe at the off-tune melody. Mabel, however, didn’t mind and much to her brother’s chagrin began humming loudly right along with the old man.

The old man dropped his tools, head shooting up to see the twins, a nervous flush temporarily lit across his face before he fell victim to Mabel’s smile and smiled back to her. Mabel knew most would shy away in disgust at his rotting teeth poking out and while she didn’t exactly find it ‘pretty’ she found she didn’t mind it. She liked seeing he was in a good mood after everything he had to just remember. If he could smile after all that, it made her feel like she could smile brighter just to make him feel more comfortable.

She waved and called his name loudly running over to give him a large hug.

He was taken back for a second tensing his shoulders before his eyes grew a little misty as he hugged Mabel back just as tightly.

Dipper coughed into his hand breaking apart the moment too soon, making Mabel scowl at her brother at the momentary disappointment that the first hug he had gotten in years had been broken too soon.

He grabbed Mr. McGucket by the arm and pulled him away from Mabel who put her hands on her hips in annoyance. 

“Have you had any head way on the computer?”

Mr. McGucket looked towards Mabel almost for help before giving a small smile Dipper’s way.

“I been tryin’ but my memory ain’t as good as it used ta be...” 

Mabel smiled sympathetically and Dipper face fell in sympathy as well as the old man sat on the ground, holding the sides of his head, pulling his old hat over his eyes a little to hide from what he mistook as Dipper’s disappointment. 

“Hey, man, its Ok…” Dipper began placing his hand on McGucket’s shoulder and plopping down next to the man on the ground. 

“Yeah!” Mabel exclaimed plopping on the ground on the older man’s opposite side, placing her hand on his shoulder as well smiling brighter when his eye poked out from under his hat, “Old people just have naturally bad memories.”

“Mabel!” Dipper yelped out turning to her with a look of disbelief.

“It’s not a bad thing! It’s just what nature intended really!”

She shrugged, “Grunkle Stan forgets stuff all the time. It’s annoying but really only for him. He loses his teeth and he’s the only one really affected. Soooo, we just help him out by keeping an eye out for them.”

McGucket’s smile began to return at her casual comment so she smiled brighter and continued, “Let us help you out! We can help your memory come back!’’

“Ya would do that?” he asked looking from one twin to the other a red flush growing on his face.

“Yeah! Oh course!” Dipper said patting him on the back.

“And not just to find out who the dumb old author is but because you’re our friend!” Mabel added in making the old man practically glow in appreciation.

“Really?” he asked and the twins nodded in unison patting him on the back reassuringly.

“Is it ok if I show you some passages from the journal again? I re read it last night and it seems he mentions you a few times. It might help you remember who he was a little.”

“And maybe more importantly, who you were,” Mabel said placing her hand on his shaking cast as he eyed the journal.

“Before we do that, can I take your measurements to make you a sweater? You are in a desperate need of a Mabel Make Over.”

She squealed in delight pulling some measuring tape from her bag at his nod and began taking his measurements while her brother opened the book to his marked page and began skimming it till he found the passage he was looking for.

“Do you remember the time you and the author went on a hiking trip? A few pages are ripped out, so maybe you could try to complete the story of where you were going before you encountered the Gremloblin and what happened afterwards.”

“And look you can help me knit if ya want to if anything in the book starts to upset you!” Mabel piped in pulling out several different colors of yarn laying them and several colorful, girly patches in front of the old man.

“Pick out what color and design you want on your new sweater while my bro bro reads you a story.”

He pointed towards a red and a raccoon patch. Mabel smiled brightly scooting closer towards him and showing him how she was crafting the sweater to give him something to focus on as her brother began to read. She began humming a song he liked under her breathe and he tried to keep his focus on that as memories began shifting through his head.

He was young was again, a man with six fingers telling him to hurry up they were wasting day light but all he wanted to do was stop and rest a minute not used to such an exhausting work out.

He remembered the Plaidypus and the tooth the boy talked about, he could picture them clearly but the six-fingered man was harder to remember. He didn’t know what his voice was, so maybe Dipper’s was close to the mark. He didn’t remember his hair or his eyes or any features that weren’t his fingers. The more he listened the more he recalled he was bigger than him, maybe not taller but wider. He had to be, he carried him home after…

He clasped his eyes shut, feeling those clawed hands digging into his sides once more and that hot breath on his face. Staring into those eyes and every nightmare coming to life, the faint feeling of wind fluttering through his hair. 

His nails dug into his hat, yanking it, his cast scratching at his face. Every muscle shook. I wish to unsee this his mind yelled out as he found himself throwing whatever he could find together in another far-off memory trying to do just that. He just wanted to forget…please let me forget…

“Mr. McGucket!!!”

A scared plea broke into his mind and he began to untense Mabel in front of him shaking him gently running her finger across his thin hair in a comforting familiar way that brought him back to a time when six fingers had done the same. His eyes were like her eyes, a warm brown filled with fear and concern and they only wanted to help him.

He put his shaking hand on Mabel’s face, wiping away a tear. He felt terrible for scaring the poor girl and her brother standing looking at him with fearful eyes next to him. He cracked a smile despite his fears and panics pulling Mabel into a tight hug with one arm and reaching over to grab Dipper pulling him in with his other arm.

They were good kids, such good kids, he didn’t want them upset none because of him.

He ran his hand through their hair and tried to assure them he was Ok now, it wasn’t their fault.

“I remember the author more,” he said through his own croaked out sob running his fingers through their hair trying to help keep them calm not wanting them to be afraid anymore, “He was a good kind man who tried to help me just like you are.”

They both cracked smiles at him as he began to tell them a memory of the six fingered man taking him to the carnival but he didn’t remember the rest. Dipper began taking notes as he told him more from the pages that were gone that were coming back to him slowly. He exaggerated and made them happier then they were just to make the kids comfortable.

They were such good kids, they reminded him of the author and that made him happy but he couldn’t say why.


End file.
